Event
Global Lens - Building Community: How the Arts Can Help Afghan Refugees
3803 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104
This event is presented by Perry World House and is part of their Global Lens lecture series. Global Lens program explores global issues through arts and culture. Throughout the academic year, we host events that examine critical global developments through cuisine, dance, music, film, literature, and the visual arts.
When the US abruptly withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, leaving it to Taliban rule, many activists and artists had no choice but to flee their homes and livelihoods. They are among the two million Afghan refugees and asylum seekers scattered across the world,and another two million displaced internally.
In this Global Lens cultural program, Jahan Ara Rafi, an Afghan artist resettled in the United States, and Valerie Plesch, a photojournalist who has documented the experiences of Afghan refugees, will look at how the arts can connect members of the global Afghan diaspora with each other, as well as the future of the arts in Afghanistan itself.
Join Perry World House and the refugee advocacy group One Journey for this conversation on how the arts can help Afghan refugees to recover from the trauma they have suffered and rebuild their lives in new places.
A reception will follow the public program.
Panelists
Jahan Ara Rafi, Afghan artist and co-founder of the Centre for Women Artists in Kabul, Afghanistan
Valerie Plesch, Photojournalist, Documentary Photographer, and Writer
Moderator
Peter Decherney, Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies; Faculty Director of Penn’s University-Wide Online Learning Initiative
Perry World House is a center for scholarly inquiry, teaching, research, international exchange, policy engagement, and public outreach on pressing global issues. Perry World House’s mission is to bring the academic knowledge of the University of Pennsylvania to bear on some of the world’s most pressing global policy challenges, and to foster international policy engagement within and beyond the Penn community.